becoming less familiar with the inner elements that lead to deep
happiness and positive social connectivity. Through meditation,
we practice reawakening those qualities by feeling our own wor-
thiness. yet when we sit down to meditate, we might not even
understand what we are trying to awaken. We need to go on a
journey to figure out what’s real.
Basic goodness is intangible. On one hand, you could say it
is the highest transmission in Buddhist tantra, which would be
not untrue. On the other hand, you can see it in a baby. Basic
goodness is the unconditional foundation of every experience.
It is always available in the present moment, healthy, whole, and
without fault.
When we practice meditation, we strip away the words and
discover how it feels to be human. We come to an inexpressible
experience of our own being that can happen only when we let
ourselves relax—when we are not afraid of ourselves, others, or
the environment. Especially in a time when there is so much self-
loathing, aggression, and mistrust—not just of the world but of
our own inherent strength and sanity—there has to be a point
where we allow ourselves to rest and feel who we are. That’s a
very important moment, because when we feel who we are, we
have the confidence of goodness no matter what experiences we
are having. This is connected to nonattachment. Relatively we
are having a lot of experiences, but ultimately we see that there
really is no good day or bad day if you are thoroughly there to
experience it. There is just basic goodness, beyond relative good
and bad.
Meditation begins with taking your posture: open in the
front, straight and upright in the back, legs crossed, hands on
the thighs. The balanced container we create allows us to rest
in our own vulnerability and strength. A moment of calm and
openness at the beginning allows for space in which experience
can occur.
As we practice, we maintain our mindfulness of the body and
its language, which is the breath, and awareness of how we hold
our mind, which is thought and emotion. Otherwise, obstacles
arise—both spiritual and mundane—and instead of experienc-
ing the confidence of goodness, we slowly withdraw.
When we lose connection with feeling, life become discom-
bobulated. We dive into our speedy routine and become myopic
and self-effacing, just trying to get by. Before we know it, we are
participating in the creation of a world where there’s more and
more paranoia and less and less security for the human mind
and heart. We’ve got to be very determined people in order to
carry our openness and compassion into daily life. As well as
kindness, we need to develop wisdom and strength.
We do this by training in equanimity. In meditation we train
in letting thoughts go. In addition, we discover that though a
good meditation experience can be valuable, it can also be dis-
tracting. If you overvalue a good experience, you’re increasing
the chances that a bad experience will disable you. Equanimity
increases the ability of the mind to go forward when encounter-
ing the obstacles and vicissitudes of life. Without such freshness
SHAMBHALA SUN MAy 2014
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